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Category: Book
Far From the Madding Crowd
Far From the Madding Crowd has disaster and desperation within it, but it remains one of Hardy’s most optimistic novels. Sally Minogue considers why. To begin at the end – Far From the Madding Crowd is one of Thomas Hardy’s happier novels, which is to say, it ends happily. This being Hardy, there is much… Read More
Shirley
David Stuart Davies looks at the second published novel of Charlotte Brontë Shirley is one of the lesser-known works of Charlotte Brontë (1816 -55), overshadowed somewhat by her blockbuster Jane Eyre, which is a shame because it is a fine novel with an engrossing narrative. Hurt by certain the criticisms of Jane Eye as being… Read More
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
‘Try a Little Tenderness’: as Lady Chatterley’s Lover comes to Netflix, Sally Minogue looks at both novel and adaptation. I always labour at the same thing, to make the sex relation valid and precious, instead of shameful. And this novel is the furthest I’ve gone. To me it is beautiful and tender and frail as… Read More
Wuthering Heights
Holding fast with Emma Rice’s Wuthering Heights: Stefania Ciocia embraces the power of Nature and of artistic adventures. I remember the first time I read Wuthering Heights. I remember it for all the wrong reasons. I was still in high-school, and the long summer holidays afforded me ample time to read. With classes over from… Read More
Complete Nonsense by Edward Lear
Although also an artist and composer, Edward Lear is deservedly best-known for his nonsense in all its many forms: songs, stories, poems, drawings, recipes, alphabets and limericks, a form which he popularized. Described by Lear as simply ‘innocent mirth’, his Complete Nonsense is not only an experience in the absurd, but reveals much about children’s… Read More
Scene at Christmas
David Stuart Davies looks at festive moments in literature It is perhaps not surprising that many writers have included a Christmas scene or passage in their novels. It is a time of year when passions are roused and the potential for great comedy or chilling melodrama is rife. Christmas is like an isolated moment in… Read More
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Sally Minogue takes a winter journey into Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles When I am preparing a blog, I often dwell on the novel or poetry I am writing about, and sometimes the author, for a few days or even weeks beforehand, so that other experiences often chime with that inner conversation. So it… Read More
The Railway Children
The Timeless Story of The Railway Children The story of The Railway Children is one that has resonated with readers for over a century. Now, beloved children’s author Jacqueline Wilson has put her own twist on E. Nesbit’s tale, modernising the narrative for a whole new audience of young readers. The Primrose Railway Children, her… Read More
Emily
Emily, a film loosely based on Emily Brontë’s life, has hit the screens. Sally Minogue finds herself at odds with the rave reviews. As soon as I had seen the film Emily, I knew what the first sentence of this blog was going to be: ‘Emily is pure codswallop’. But me no buts. But …… Read More